====== Application Manager Portable (“AMP”) Infosheet ======
**This is the archived version, see also the [[updater|development version]]**

PLEASE NOTE: None of this has been implemented yet, nor is it final.

Application Manager Portable uses a Debian-like package management system, involving two components: a client application suite and a server repository. Multiple server repositories can be enabled.

===== Client Application Suite =====
Application Manager Portable includes several applications and data files, listed below:

  * /Data/Settings/sources.ini – This file contains a list of repositories that AMP can access.
  * /Data/Repos/apps-subdomain.servername.tld.ini – These files contain lists of applications available for download from each server. For example, a user could have the files apps-amp.portableapps.com.ini and apps-amp.cubegames.net.ini saved on their drives, each file containing apps available at those websites. Each server stores a master copy of their .ini file, and update.exe updates local copies each time it is run.
  * /Data/Settings/installed.ini – This file contains a list of currently installed applications and their versions.
  * /App/AMP/update.exe – This application synchronizes all local copies of apps-subdomain.servername.tld.ini with the appropriate server-side copies.
  * /App/AMP/upgrade.exe – This application compares the data in installed.ini with that in the local copies of apps-subdomain.servername.tld.ini, and determines which applications have new versions available for download. It then presents the user with the available upgrades, who has three options:
    * Accept some or all upgrades
    * Delay some or all upgrades
    * Permanently prevent some or all upgrades
  * /App/AMP/install.exe – This application runs update.exe, and then presents the user with a list of applications available for download and install. The user can select an application to view information about it (either a description saved in the apps-subdomain.servername.tld.ini files, or a link to the website), and selects those applications he or she wishes to install. install.exe downloads the requested files to the Windows TEMP folder, then installs them.
  * /App/AMP/uninstall.exe – This application shows a list of installed applications, and provides the user with two choices for each installed application:
    * Remove completely: Delete the application folder and its data folder.
    * Remove partially: Delete the application folder, leaving the data folder alone.
  * /AMP.exe – This application acts as a GUI and launcher for all the other applications


The following is a sample directory structure. Application Manager Portable uses this directory structure by default; other directory structures may be implemented in the future.

  PortableApps/
    ApplicationManager/
      (files mentioned above; organization TBD)
        FirefoxPortable/
          (files)

===== Server Side ===== 
No software has to be installed on the server—the only requirement is a certain directory structure. No other files may be kept under the AMP directory, other than packages and required INIs. Other files must be kept in separate directories. A sample of this directory structure is listed here:

  AMP/
    apps-amp.portableapps.com.ini
      f/
        fi/
          firefox-2.0.0.3.paf.exe

Files are organized in a way similar to that used by SourceForge.net. When installing an application, both the application and the data packages are used; when upgrading an application, only the application package is used so as not to overwrite current settings. 

===== Package Format =====
Package files have the . paf.exe suffix, and are packaged in accordance with the PAF specifications. They may be 7-zip self extractors or NSIS installers, but must accept certain command line parameters. For example, the Firefox Portable package might look like this:

  /FirefoxPortable
    App  
      (files)
    Data/
      (files)
    Other/
      (files; possibly source, readmes, etc.)
    FirefoxPortable.exe

All extractors must accept the following command line parameters:
<code>-oC:\PortableApps\ -y -/SILENT=YES /DESTINATION=C:\PortableApps\</code>

-o is output directory. -y is Assume Yes on dialogs. -/SILENT is silent install. /DESTINATION is the destination directory, which is redundant as –o sets the output directory.